This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. While survival rates continue to improve for the premature newborn, the incidence of major disabilities has stagnated. As a consequence, the American Public Health Association has called for the identification of interventions to help minimize the development of disabilities in the premature newborn. This study proposes to describe and evaluate exposure to a quality of sound;the maternal voice;which the premature loses significant contact with due to an unusually early birth. In preliminary studies with the fetus during a similar developmental time-period, nonlinear changes in heart rate variability;HRV;and ongoing interactions between learning, movement and HRV were noted. Like in the preliminary study, the premature infant will similarly experience daily exposures to a taped recording of their mother reciting a nursery rhyme;weekly monitoring sessions will describe longitudinal changes in HRV and test for developmental changes in HRV, and movement as learning emerges. Twenty-eight low-risk premature infants will be recruited and randomly assigned to one of two groups. Group 1 will begin exposure to a recording of a nursery rhyme recited by their mother at 28 weeks and Group 2 at 32 weeks. Developmental changes in HRV and the cardiac response to the rhyme will be assessed weekly. Power spectral analysis will be performed to determine the developmental changes in HRV. Small heart rate decelerations in response to presentation of the nursery rhyme;cardiac orienting response;will be analyzed to determine when familiarity to the nursery rhyme emerges.